Buy That Rifle

I went to Cabela's fabulous store in Pennsylvania while visiting my sister. I was overwhelmed. I was not expecting the sheer size or number of displays. The deer display alone must have been in the hundreds. They had examples of every possible species you would have ever thought could be hunted and some you wouldn't have come up with. Even a non hunter could enjoy the museum quality vignettes from every continent.
Then we went to the gun room. This would be Sarah Brady's Bunch's nightmare. Smiling men, women and children perusing rows and rows of every size, shape and caliber of firearms. It was in the used, moderately priced section when I saw one of the saddest scenes unfold. A couple that had to be in their seventies stood at the end of the aisle. The gentleman held a used rifle with the smile of a boy on his face. Perhaps it was a rifle he had longed for in his youth. Maybe a replacement for one sold earlier in life when financial need outweighed pursuits afield. He brought it to his bride for her approval with joyful expectation. She turned to him and with cold finality said "No! It's too expensive!" and stalked away. The beaten look on the old man's face as he lovingly put the rifle back in the rack was painful to watch. The man is in his seventies. I would assume he has raised kids and grand kids, paid mortgages, car payments and doctor's bills too numerable to remember. What could they be "saving" for? How many years does this man still have that would allow him to enjoy a day in the woods? If I had the money, I would have bought it for him just to see the look on the wife's face and to restore the smile on his.
Many people never make it to retirement. The sister I was visiting lost her husband to cancer at the age of 58. Saving and fiscal responsibility are important. So is enjoying life. Don't focus so intently on saving and scrimping for retirement that you neglect to enjoy the majority of your life. Take the vacation, don't work every Saturday, go fishing, book that hunt of a lifetime, buy that rifle.